


I'll Leave the Love I Have For You (In the Stars)

by Sealure



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Altean Lance (Voltron), But it's really gonna suck getting there, Eventual Happy Ending, Gen, How Do I Tag, Hurt/Comfort, Lance (Voltron) Needs a Hug, Langst, Major Spoilers, Original Blue Paladin Lance, Original Character Death(s), Tags Are Hard, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-20
Updated: 2019-06-26
Packaged: 2019-08-24 03:33:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16632101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sealure/pseuds/Sealure
Summary: Lance McClain is the Blue Paladin of Voltron. But his real name is Atreyu Talyn...who also happens to be the Blue Paladin of Voltron. No matter how far you run from the fires of your past, the stars will always lead you home.





	1. The End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Fall of Altea seen through the eyes of her broken children

Arianwen staggered down Green's ramp, heaving for breath and hacking up great lungfuls of blood. Zarkon's bayard had torn through her armor like it wasn't even there.

She clamped her not-broken arm around her shredded abdomen and set off for the control room as quickly as she could.

The doors opened at her touch. She could see Alfor, and Allura. Coran, the royal adviser, was there as well. That was all she had time to see before her legs gave out.

"Ari!" She heard Allura cry out, and then strong arms were slowing her descent. She looked up wearily, seeing Coran's concerned face.

She gave him a tiny, broken smile as he helped her back up.

"Thanks, Coranick," she said softly, and was rewarded with a snort at the ridiculous nickname that her brother had come up with.

Her heart lurched.

"Have we heard anything from Blue or Atreyu?" she asked, making her way over to her chair and sagging into it, prodding at her wound. She muffled a cough into the crook of her arm.

"Yes," Alfor answered grimly. His blue eyes darted to her green ones for a moment, and she could see her own grief reflected in them. "Zarkon…."The Altean King closed his eyes for a moment, and Ari felt her heart stop.

"He's didn't—Ayu's not—" she started, fear crawling up her throat, gut wrenching and all-consuming. She could not lose her brother. She couldn't.

"No!" Allura sprang forwards, hands on the Paladin's shoulders. "No, he's alive, Ari. He's alive."

Ari's eyes closed without her permission, and she slumped against the Princess. "Thank the Ancients," she muttered.

"He's in a healing pod," Coran said, crouching in front of her and pulling her arms away so he could inspect her injury. The usually jovial man's face was twisted with sorrow. "It's very bad, Ari."

She swallowed hard and nodded. "How bad?"

Coran's jaw worked for a moment before he managed to get out an answer. "The two of them were battling up on one of the Galra cruisers. Zarkon got lucky. His bayard—" Coran closed his eyes. "His bayard went straight through Atreyu's body. He then kicked number three off of the ship onto the rocks below. I don't know how far he fell, but it was a long way. The skin on his back looks like he's been flogged, and the bones are utterly shattered, along with most of his ribs. Zarkon's bayard did an incredible amount of damage to his lungs and stomach. And he hit his head, though to be frank, that's the injury I'm the least concerned with."

Ari took a shuddery breath, covering her face with her hands. "I didn't feel anything…."

Allura took her hands and squeezed them comfortingly. "That's because all of you shut down your bonds, remember? So Zarkon couldn't get into your heads?"

"Right, right," Ari said. She took another breath, significantly steadier. "Thank you, 'Lura."

The other girl smiled at her.

"Have we heard from Yseult?" Ari asked, returning her attention to her injury. She turned her head aside as a coughing fit brought up another mouthful of blood.

Alfor shook his head. "Which isn't good," he said softly. "Yseult isn't one to miss deadlines, especially in situations such as these."

Ari snorted. "As though we've ever been in a situation like this before." She raked her hands through her silvery curls.

Alfor shot her an unamused look, and she grimaced in apology.

"Any word from—" she faltered, then shook her head harshly. "Any word from him?" She all but spat out the last word, unable to say his name after all he had done to them.

Alfor's jaw clenched, and he shook his head once.

Arianwen nodded.

Then there was a massive impact, throwing Ari, Allura, and Coran to the ground. Ari gasped as she landed on her broken arm, stars exploding before her eyes at the pain. But she didn't have time to be hurt. She dragged herself up and leaned against her chair. She pressed her hand over her wound again, and focused on her quintessence. Green for life.

Her hand began to glow with a rich viridian, and slowly, the injuries began to heal. Atreyu was much better at this, being the Water Paladin and all, but she was almost as good. She was running low on energy, though, and Allura could see that. The Princess pressed her hands over the Paladins, lending her more strength. While not able to heal it completely, she had mended her lungs and at least patched the damaged organs and ribs. That would do until the battle was over. And one way or another, it was ending today.

"Alfor." The voice that rang through the control room had every occupant going stiff.

Allura's eyes blazed, and she made to step forwards, but Ari caught her arm and held her back with a sharp look.

"Zarkon," Alfor didn't try to hide the pain in his voice, and it made Ari's heart hurt even more when Zarkon showed no sign of caring—or of even hearing it. "What do you want?"

"Your fleet has been decimated, Alfor," Zarkon said, unnatural eyes glowing with a sick delight. "Altea has fallen. I will be there to claim Voltron shortly."

The Green Paladin closed her eyes, fighting back the tears. This man had been a brother to her, to both of the Talyn twins. But this monster was not the Zarkon of old. This monster was something else entirely.

"Or rather, what's left of it."

Ari's eyes snapped open. "What do you mean?!" she demanded, shoving herself up and stepping in front of the viewscreen. "What do mean, what's left? What have you done?!"

Zarkon's grin widened, and for the first time, she noticed that his face bore a new, bloody scar down the right side of it.

"Arianwen Talyn. You survived." His eyes glittered. "I'm impressed. If only the others were as resilient, hm?"

Ari's heart jumped into her mouth. "What are you talking about?"

"It's such a shame that Yseult is such a trusting and forgiving being, isn't it?"

Ari staggered back. "What—"she croaked. "What did you do to him?"

Yseult. The Yellow Paladin. The most friendly and loving being she had ever met in her life with the exception of Atreyu. The giant Balmeran was as gentle as could be, and had been a father figure to literally all of them.

Zarkon's grin widened. "I ripped that great big heart right out of his chest."

Tears stung her eyes, and hatred filled her heart as pain blazed through her spirit. "No," she whispered, desperately reaching out for her fellow Paladin's minds. There was Alfor: warm red, usually brilliant, but now dim with grief. There was Atreyu, peaceful blue, normally glowing with love and laughter, now a cold, cold icy mindscape of pain. There was Zarkon—a pit of swirling darkness and madness, streaked through with that awful glowing purple that she didn't dare get any closer to. But where Yseult's bright, cheerful Gold should have been…There was a ragged hole, and Ari desperately opened her mind farther, reaching, seeking desperately.

That was when she heard it—the soft, broken sounds of a Lion mourning its Paladin. Yellow's soft cries were suddenly deafening, and she couldn't hear anything above them except her own pounding heart. She could feel Alfor's rage behind her, along with Allura and Coran.

"How could you?!" She exploded, quintessence blazing to life in her hands and in her eyes. "We were a family! We loved you! How could you do this to us?!"

"How?" Zarkon's grin faded. "You would have left my beloved to die! My precious Honerva! The Paladins betrayed me, Arianwen! And now you will pay! I will be there to collect Voltron within the varga!"

The transmission cut out.

Ari stood there, shaking with rage and pain and fear, until a warm hand clasped hers, unconcerned with the green quintessence coursing over her skin. Alfor pulled her into his chest and wrapped his arms around her tight. She clung to him, the quintessence fading as tears slid from her eyes.

"Father, we must fight!" Allura said strongly from behind them. "We must form Voltron!"

"No, daughter," Alfor said gravely. He pressed his and Ari's foreheads together in the traditional Altean display of sibling love. They stayed there for just a moment, letting the pain and love and grief and determination flow across the Paladin bond.

Ari inhaled sharply when she saw his plan, and felt more tears sting her eyes, but she nodded anyway, promising him her help.

They released each other and Alfor turned to Allura. "We must hide the Lions. Zarkon cannot get his hands on them."

"We cannot form Voltron anyway," Ari reminded her, wiping the tears away from Ari's ocean-blue face markings. Yseult is—" she closed her eyes. "Yseult is gone."

"But Father—"

Alfor turned to Allura and reached out, placing a hand on her shoulder. "No, Allura," he said again. There was a brief flare of quintessence, and Allura's eyes widened as she realized what Alfor had done.

"Father—" she gasped, reaching out to him.

"If all goes well, I will see you again soon," Alfor promised. He forced a smile. "I love you, Allura."

The girl collapsed, Alfor sweeping her up into his arms and cradling her. Coran's mouth was hanging open, but before he could speak, Alfor deposited Allura into his arms. "Put her in one of the cryo pods," he said. "She'll be safe there."

Coran nodded numbly and strode from the room.

Alfor turned back to Ari. "I need more time, Ari," he said, eyes burning. "I need more time to hide them."

"I can—" she swallowed hard. "I can give you that."

His eyes were too bright, and then there was only pain, spiraling out from where her heart used to be until it was all she could feel.

Alfor strode back to the command console and put his hands on the sensors. The blue light shone from the crystal and he looked at her.

"Fly for the banner of Altea once more, Green Paladin," he said gravely. "One day, may our paths meet again."

Ari clasped her arm over her chest and bowed. Words would not come.

She staggered back to her feet and looked him in the eye.

"Until that day, my King," she whispered.

The Castle rocked with a particularly vicious blast, and Arianwen Talyn fled for her Lion.

There was nothing else she could do.

* * *

Atreyu distantly realized he was falling, but the thought had barely registered before someone was catching him, carefully setting him back on his own feet. Whoever it was gently carded a hand through his tangled, bloodstained white hair, and he unconsciously leaned into it.

Someone was speaking. "….don't know what happened, you shouldn't be out yet—"

"….Kon?" he mumbled, still mostly unaware.

The hand jerked briefly, before resuming its gentle touch. "No, lad. It's Coran."

Ayu made a soft noise of response, the words not really registering.

Zarkon usually caught him after he was injured. He would check all of his injuries over himself and then proceed to give him a twenty dobosh lecture on how reckless he was and how much he meant to all of them. He'd give the Altean a gentle, careful embrace and tell him, "You're my little brother, Ayu. I need you to be more careful with yourself." Then Yseult would worm his way in, one hand on Zarkon's shoulder, the other on Ayu's with a huge smile and a "It is good to see this one awake. My heart was not easy until I saw that you were well." After him, Alfor would come raging through the door, yelling about how much of an idiot he was and what was he thinking and that was so stupid and reckless and Ayu would laugh as Alfor gave him a rib-breaking hug. Then Arianwen would slip up to him and give him a heartfelt embrace and a kiss on the forehead, gently yet firmly telling him to be more careful.

Ayu rested his head on Coran's shoulder as he waited for the others to get there.

/ _Zarkon's face twisted with sick satisfaction as Yseult's body hit the ground, the gentle Balmeran's eyes still wide with shock and betrayal/_

Ayu gasped, stumbling, as memories started crashing into his head.

_/Atreyu howled in agony and rage, leaping forward and bringing his bladed bow down on Zarkon's face with all the strength he had left in his broken body/_

"No, no, no, no," he whispered, dropping to his knees with his hands ripping at his silver hair.

"Are you alright, Atreyu?" Coran's voice sounded like it was coming from far away. "Ayu?"

_/Zarkon roared in pain and anger, and his bayard flashed. Their battle was bitter and long and painful. So, so very painful. Finally, in his exhaustion, Ayu made a fatal mistake. His foot slipped, and his weapon dipped towards the ground. In the single heartbeat that his guard was down, Zarkon's bayard lashed out, and Ayu could do nothing but gasp as the cruel weapon tore through his body like he was made of water vapor._

_His Lion was screaming in his mind, but her voice felt fuzzy and far away, and her words were unclear._

_Ayu stared up at Zarkon as he approached. "Kon….." he whispered, one blood-stained hand reaching up to the one he'd once called brother._

_Zarkon snarled at him. "Goodbye, Brother."_

_An iron boot collided with his chest, and he felt bones snapping as he started falling…..falling…falling….._

_And then he hit the ground._

_The last thing he saw before darkness took him was Zarkon, standing on his ship, laughing as fires of death and destruction raged around him/_

"Zarkon… _."_ Ayu whispered. "Oh, brother, what have you done?"

"Oh, Ayu," Coran murmured, choking up. He pulled the boy into his arms and held him tight for a long moment.

A distant explosion rocked the Castle, and the Paladin straightened. "What was that?"

Coran sighed, looking about fifty deca-phoebes older. "That would be the Galra army."

Ayu closed his eyes and bowed his head.

The doors to the medbay flew open, and Alfor came in at a run. He slowed when he saw the younger Altean. "Oh, thank the Ancients," he breathed, jogging over and pressing their foreheads together. "I had to turn off all the minor functions to keep the particle barrier up. I didn't realize it would turn off the healing pods as well." He pulled back, hands on Ayu's shoulders.

"How are you feeling?"

The boy grinned. "I'm fi—"

"If you finish that sentence with fine, I swear to the Ancients, Atreyu," Alfor warned.

Ayu looked away and didn't answer.

The older Altean sighed and embraced him again, but another explosion made them jump apart again.

"Alfor, what's happening?" Ayu demanded.

The king's mouth pressed into a thin line. "I'm hiding Voltron," he told the other Paladin. "Zarkon is after the Lions, so I'm splitting them up and hiding them as far apart as I can. I need you to take Blue to this planet." He passed him a hand-held navigation device with coordinates already punched in. "If all goes well, I'll see you soon. If it doesn't—"

"Don't even say it," Ayu interrupted. "Please. I can't lose you, too."

"I can get the Castle to a safe place where Zarkon won't find it, but—"Alfor swallowed hard. "—but I need time. Ari and Green are already out there wreaking havoc, but they're not enough, and I have to fly the Castle. Would you—"

"No," Coran interrupted. "No. Nah-ah. No way. He is injured, and exhausted and in pain and—"

"I'll do it," Ayu pulled himself upright, ignoring both the pain still coursing through his body and the tears coursing down his cheeks. "I can do it."

Alfor's face twisted with sorrow and grief. "I'm so sorry, Ayu. I am so sorry, I would never ask this of you if I didn't have to—"

"I know," Ayu cut him off as tears beginning to slide from Alfor's eyes as well.

Alfor reached into the Paladin bond and showered the boy in all the love he could muster, marred with pain and grief as it was. Ayu returned it with a shuddery gasp.

He dropped to one knee, arm clasped across his chest. "My King," he choked out.

Alfor stood above him, stained with tears and battle. "Blue Paladin of Voltron," he said gravely. "Will you swear to do all in your power to keep the Lions of Voltron from falling into the hands of the former Black Paladin, the Galra Emperor Zarkon?"

"I swear," Ayu said.

"Even at the cost of your own life?"

"Yes."

"Even at the cost of the lives of others?"

Ayu closed his eyes and bowed his head. "Yes."

"Will you swear to defend this Castle, its people and all it stands for, with all of your strength?"

"Yes."

"Will you swear to defend the defenseless, guard the broken, and protect the innocent?"

"Yes."

"Will you swear to fight for justice and truth for all the Universe until your last breath?"

"I swear," Ayu said hoarsely. "I swear to fight for Justice and Truth, but also for Love and Family and all that is good in this universe." He stood and clasped Alfor's arm.

"I will fight until my last breath and beyond," Alfor said.

Ayu gave him a broken smile and answered. "I will fight until the sun goes out."

"Then I shall turn to the stars—"

"—and they shall guide me home."

Alfor swallowed hard and released him.

Ayu saluted him one last time. "May the constellations guide you on your journey."

Alfor locked eyes with him. "And may the stars guide you home."

Ayu choked back his sobs and stood straight. He summoned his bayard, and clapped Coran on the shoulder before running to Blue's hangar and climbing into the cockpit.

"Let's go, girl," he said. "Alfor needs some time, and we can give him that. Let's take out as many of them as we can on our way out. We have to get past Zarkon's fleet before we can open a wormhole, anyway."

Blue purred. **_Together, my pilot._**

"Together," he murmured. He leaned back and closed his eyes, merging his mind with Blue's until the two became one.

They blasted out of their hangar, soaring and twisting through the seemingly endless army of drones that was swarming the Castle. They roared a challenge, crushing one in their jaws and slinging it into three others. They blasted and clawed and bit and destroyed a countless number of drones before they finally found Ari/Green.

 ** _Sister_**? They called.

 ** _I am here,_** Ari/Green answered. They swooped down next to them, and they faced the enemy side by side, just like so many times before.

 ** _Together_**? Ayu/Blue asked.

 ** _Always_** , Ari/Green answered.

 ** _Until the end, then,_** Ayu/Blue said softly.

 ** _And beyond,_**  Ari/Green promised.

And with that, they launched themselves into the battle. Lions blazing with quintessence, pilots melded perfectly with Lions and each other. They were undefeatable.

Until they weren't.

Lightning blazed down out of Zarkon's command ship—a horrible, purple/black lightning that Ari/Green just couldn't dodge in time.

 _ **NO!**_ Ayu/Blue roared, because it was all they could do.

Ari/Green spun through the air until they crashed into the ground.

Lightning cracked down again.

Then Ari/Green screamed. And screamed. And screamed.

Until there was only silence.

Not from Green—Green was hurt, very badly, but Green was alive.

Ayu clawed his way free from Blue's mind, howling into the comms. "No! NO! Ari! Arianwen, you answer me right now! Ari! Ari, ple—"his voice snapped. "Ari, please, answer me. Ari, please, sister mine, answer me! Please….." his desperate cries and pleas faded into nothing. His eyes were wide and full of tears, but he couldn't feel anything. Surely not. Surely not. This was all just some sort of horrible training simulator. Any moment now, the door would open and Ari and Zarkon and Alfor and Yseult and Allura would come running in and hold him and promise him that they were alright, they were all alright, it was just a nightmare.

But the star studded sky outside his viewport remained the same.

"Ari…" he whispered.

"…A…Ayu…" came the barely audible response. "Ay—Ayu, I'm—I'm here."

"Hold on," he ordered desperately. "Hold on, Ari, I'm coming."

"I love…"her breathing was slowing down. "I love you."

He slammed Blue into a full-speed spiral towards the ground, towards the helpless, broken form of his sister and her Lion. "I love you too, okay? So you can't go leaving me like this, alright? That's not allowed. You—you have to stay with me, okay?"

"I…I'll try…" her voice faded out.

"Ari! Don't go to sleep! Stay with me!"

"I…love you…so much," she rasped.

There was a horrible coughing noise, and Ayu winced in sympathy as some of the pain slid into the Paladin bond. He quickly took as much of it as he could.

She sighed in relief. "Thank you…I'm getting…sleepy…"

"No, Ari!" He shouted. "No, don't go to sleep! I'm almost there. I'm almost there, sweetheart. Just hold on for me a few ticks longer, alright? Just a few more ticks."

"I don't think…I'm gonna make…a few more ticks."

"Don't you talk like that! You're going to be fine!"

"I…love…you…"

"No! Ari, don't—"

"Atreyu…Brother…"

"Ari, please!"

"I…love you…"

"I love you, too," he whispered, tears strangling his voice. "I love you so much, Arianwen. You are my precious, beautiful little sister. I love you more than I have words for."

"Say it…again."

"I love you."

"A…gain."

"I love you."

"One…more?"

Ayu felt his heart break. "I love you more than I love the stars," he whispered. "More than I love the sea. I love you more than I love anything in existence. I love you till the day I die and beyond. In ten thousand years, when all that's left of us will be legends scattered throughout the stars, I'll still love you. Forever and always, sister mine. Arianwen. I love you forever and always."

"Forever…and…and always," she gasped back. "Ayu…when you see the…the stars, shining….on you, remember me. I'll leave…the love…I have for you…in the stars. They'll… hold onto it for me. And then…you can always…see it….Even in ten thousand years…when all that's left...is stories...they will…still hold…my love…for you…Atreyu, brother mine…"

"Ari," he choked.

"Atreyu," she whispered, voice so faint he could barely hear it.

"Arianwen."

"Atreyu…"

"I love you."

"Ayu…"

"Ari?"

"…"

"Ari?!"

…

"ARI!"

Blue landed beside Green, and Ayu was leaping out of her mouth long before they'd landed. He sprinted to the broken Lion, her jaw hanging askew. He dove inside, taking no notice when broken edges of metal or glass tore at the skin not covered by his armor. He crawled into the destroyed cockpit, and couldn't muffle the wild scream of grief that ripped from his throat as his blue eyes met glassy, empty green ones that would never smile again.

He crashed to the floor, pulling his sister's body into his lap and sobbing into her hair, broken pleas to "Come back," and "Please, don't leave me," spilling from him in floods.

Green was howling, he realized dimly. Blue and Green were both howling their grief and pain to the sky and Ayu thought his heart was going to be crushed beneath the weight of the absolute agony that carved and gouged its way into every corner of his being. There was no end to the pain. It was all consuming, all encompassing, never ending. He couldn't do this. He couldn't live like this.

Green was too wounded to get up, and too heartsick to care.

Blue could do nothing but weep with her sister, and her paladin.

Ayu felt paralyzed by the agony gripping his body.

Was this what it felt like to die?

* * *

 Ayu didn't know how long he sat there, ticks or doboshes or vargas. It didn't matter.

But eventually, he dragged himself to his feet, cradling Ari's empty body in his arms. He started walking. He made it out of Green, being oh so careful to make sure nothing touched Ari. Nothing would ever hurt her again. Nothing could hurt her again.

The thought made him falter, and almost fall, but he didn't let go of her.

He didn't let go of her when the Galra drones surrounded them, on the ground and in the air.

He didn't let go of her when he heard a ship landing behind them.

He didn't let go of her when he realized he wasn't going to make it back to Blue.

He didn't let go of her when he heard the familiar sound of a bayard activating.

He didn't let go of her when he turned around to face the traitor.

Zarkon's smile was firmly in place, but Ayu saw the way his eyes couldn't stay on Ari's empty ones.

"Why?" he croaked, unable to say anything else past the grief that was slowly strangling him.

Zarkon's eyes glowed. "Why not?" he purred. He raised his bayard. "This time, I'll make sure you're dead."

Ayu spun around as the wretched weapon whipped past them.

Zarkon would not touch her.

The Altean leapt forwards, arms outstretched, as Blue shook off the drones that had been swarming her and reached for him, opening her mouth. He threw Ari in, mentally apologizing for the rough treatment. He was about to follow her when something hit his back and knocked the breath out of him. He looked down and found the tip of Zarkon's bayard sticking out of his chest. Again.

That's not good.

His legs gave out, and he sagged to the ground, fingers grasping uselessly at the wound.

Zarkon stepped around him, sadistic smile still in place. "You fought hard, Little Blue," he said mockingly. "But it wasn't enough. You weren't enough. You couldn't save Arianwen. You couldn't save Yseult. You couldn't save Alfor. You are useless. You are a failure. Think on that, Blue Paladin, as your life bleeds away before your eyes."

He probably would have said more, but Green snapped. She surged up from the ground, roaring her pain and rage for all to hear. Her golden eyes locked onto the one who was the cause of all this, and she attacked with all she had left.

Zarkon ripped his bayard free of Ayu's chest to defend himself, and as he started to fall, Blue caught him. The bigger Lion leapt into the air, grabbing Green in her claws and retreating as quickly as she could.

Green struggled and roared, begging to go back, begging for vengeance.

Blue refused to let go.

Ayu dragged himself to the pilot's seat, Ari safely in his grasp. He leaned back against the seat, lacking the strength to climb up into it. He pulled his sister's limp body into his arms and tilted his head back as he fought for breath.

A warning went off on Blue's console, and her paladin turned his head to see it. Alfor appeared on the monitor, his eyes growing wide when he saw no Paladin in the seat.

"Atreyu?!" he called sharply. "Ayu!"

"Here…" Ayu gasped out.

Alfor looked down, and horror and grief twisted his face. "Ayu," he said. "Is Ari...She's not..."

Ayu let out a hysterical laugh, blood choking up his throat and staining the pilot's chair.

"She's gone," he croaked. "But I have Green. If Blue helps me, I can heal this—" he gestured to himself, "—and still get both of them hidden."

Alfor stared at him, and Ayu felt something sick in his stomach as he realized that Alfor wasn't in the Castle anymore. He shot a quick look at another screen and barely managed to contain his shout of fear. The Castle was completely surrounded by Galra ships and taking incredibly heavy fire. Then a hangar opened, and the Red Lion blasted out.

"Alfor, what are you doing?!"

"I'm sorry, Atreyu," Alfor said, eyes locking onto the younger Altean's. "I'm so, so sorry."

"No, no, no," Ayu panicked. "No, we can come and get you!"

"No, Ayu," Alfor said firmly. He pressed his hand against one of the controls, and suddenly Blue was flying faster towards a wormhole that had just opened up above the Galra fleet.

"What are you doing?!" Ayu shouted, lurching up in desperation. "No! Alfor, please!"

"I love you, Ayu," Alfor said. "I love you, little brother."

"No! Alfor, please no!"

The King smiled.

"May the stars guide you home, my friend."

"NO!"

The screen went dark, and Blue flew around Altea, weaving through the flaming mech rings that encircled the once peaceful planet, now with fires raging over its surface.

They were almost to the wormhole when there was an explosion behind them. Ayu's head snapped up as Blue turned to look back, Green motionless in her claws. And Ayu felt his heart stop.

Altea was burning.

Altea was gone.

What had once been a place of peace, beauty, and joy was now reduced to nothing more than a flaming debris field.

 _Allura_.

The Castle was nowhere in sight.

 _Coran_.

Probably incinerated like everything else.

 _Mother_.

Like everyone else.

 _Father_.

Everyone he loved.

 _Javen_.

Everything he knew.

 _Seri_.

Gone.

 _Valen_.

Never to return.

 _Lyren_.

His home was gone.

_May the stars guide you home._

How could the stars guide him to a place that was burning as brightly as they?

Distantly, through the smog and fire, he could see something being dragged up from the wreckage of his planet.

The Red Lion. Motionless, with dull eyes. The Lion—and his Paladin—disappeared into Zarkon's ship.

Alfor.

Ayu distantly realized he was screaming, but he didn't know what he was saying. Blue and Green were screaming, too.

Then the force of the explosion finally reached them, and Ayu curled around Ari as tightly as he could as they were thrown around the cockpit. Blue was spinning head over tail, but Ayu kept his eyes on the view port, watching his entire life die.

Atreyu Talyn, Blue Paladin of Voltron finally made it through the wormhole with his Lion, his sister's Lion, and his sister's body.

Behind him, Altea burned.


	2. The Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Atreyu Talyn has been dead for a long, long time.

Lance McClain was an ordinary, seventeen-year-old boy. He was from Cuba, and his family wasn't very well off, so he'd worked his way into the Garrison on a scholarship.

Lie.

Atreyu Talyn was somewhere over ten thousand years old. He was from Altea, and his family was dead. He was at the Garrison to make sure the humans didn't stray farther than they should. His only friend was hidden in the desert, far below the ground.

Green he had hidden on a wildly beautiful, peaceful planet that had few inhabitants. He'd buried his sister there. His beautiful Arianwen. He could still see her face: mischievous, sparkling green eyes, uncontrollable silver curls, bright viridian face markings. He could still hear her laugh, and her strangled sounds of pain as she drowned in her own blood. He'd buried her in a tiny hollow right next to Green. The grass had been thick and soft, the trees tall and strong. There was a carpet of jewel-toned flowers over the grass, and a tiny blue stream running through it.

She would have loved it.

Green had hidden herself by growing roots and vines all over the ancient temple the natives had led them to. She pressed against Ayu's mind one last time before making her way to the heart of the tangle to await her new Paladin. Ayu had done what he could to honor his sister, and carved her story into the steps of the temple that the natives restored over and around Green's deactivated form.

Alfor had hidden Yellow himself, but left the coordinates in Blue's computer. Before their final wormhole jump to Blue's hiding place, they had gone to see Yellow one last time. And Ayu had done the only thing he could do for the father who had given his life for him: he told his story. Carved it into undying stone, immortalizing the mighty heart of the Yellow Paladin.

Blue's cave on Terra—or Earth, as they called it now—was about as far from the oceans of their home as you could get. But there were several underground rivers that ran into it, so it would do. Ayu had carved his story into the walls of the caves above: a heart-wrenching tale of betrayal and pain. Half of the markings were etched in Lance's blood.

Or, rather, Ayu's blood.

Atreyu and Arianwen Talyn were long dead.

But Lance McClain?

He was just starting out.

* * *

 

Lance stretched, yawning. Iverson had been particularly horrible today, and he really just wanted to go talk to his Lion. He couldn't actually access the cave where she was without damaging the layers of spells that hid their quintessence, but it was better than being miles and miles away.

She purred in the back of his mind. **_You have homework._**

 _Blue_ , he complained, but she only laughed.

 _Fine_ , he grumbled, and dragged his simulator flight manual out of his backpack. It was such a pain, pretending to be a sub-par pilot. But he had to stay hidden. His life—and Earth's freedom—depended on him never being found again.

So he cracked his knuckles, rubbed his eyes, and got to work.

* * *

 

Lance tuned out Hunk's nervous chatter as they slunk down the hallways of the Garrison. To be honest, it would be a lot easier without the big guy, but there was no way he was leaving Hunk behind. The boy had a warm, loving feel about him. He reminded Lance of Yseult in all the best ways. He made sure Lance ate, woke him up from nightmares and just held him until he calmed down, encouraged him when Iverson was awful…..Lance couldn't have asked for a better best friend.

Tonight was just a fun night. They'd sneak to the town, grab some burgers, fries, and milkshakes (maybe flirt a little along the way) and then head back. It was a good plan.

But even the best laid plans go awry, and even Lance had to admit that his hadn't been laid particularly well to start with.

When they saw Pidge sneaking out of his room and running for the roof, Lance was understandably curious. Hunk was understandably not. And Lance had a heck of a time teasing Hunk about it until they caught up with Pidge and he said a word that Lance hadn't heard in ten thousand years.

Voltron.

"Voltron?" he croaked, doing everything he could to hide just what that simple little word meant to him.

"Yeah," Pidge said, eyes darting back to his screen. "I think…..I think it's a weapon of some kind."

 _Blue_ …he whispered, fear welling up in him. _I don't want them to get hurt. I don't want to lose them like I lost—_

 ** _You will not_** , she interrupted. **_We will not._**

Lance raked his fingers through his hair. _How can you say that?! We already know that the Galra have been to Earth at least once before! And what about the Kerberos mission?!_

He could feel Blue's wince. **_There was nothing we could have done to help them. Not without revealing ourselves and thus condemning the entire planet. You know this, my paladin._**

 _Yeah, yeah_. He took a deep breath. "So, you've been eavesdropping on aliens. Good to know."

"Yes," Pidge said with a short glare at him. "And tonight, it's going crazier than I've ever heard it."

Lance felt that same fear pull at his stomach when the Garrison alarms went off. But that tinge was nothing compared to the ice that flooded his veins when they saw the Galra pod hurtling towards the ground.

He was just grateful the horrified sound he made could be passed off as shock that aliens existed.

 _Blue!_ He shouted as they took off, running for the pod. _Blue, they've found us!_

He could feel her concern, and her anger, but she was still mostly deactivated. She couldn't fully wake by herself, not after so long apart from her Paladin.

The three of them snuck up a ridge as close to the quarantine as they dared, and Pidge quickly hacked the cameras.

Lance couldn't stop his sharp inhale when he saw the man on the table. "That's Takashi Shirogane! He was the pilot of the Kerberos mission!"

"But where's the rest of the crew?" Pidge muttered, brows creasing.

They stared in disbelief as the med techs sedated Shiro without listening to a word he had to say. Lance's jaw tightened when he saw the arm—that was Galra tech. He'd bet his life on it.

"What are they doing?" Lance said. "The guy's a legend, and they're not even going to listen to him?!"

"They didn't even ask about the rest of the crew!" Pidge said. He turned to Lance. "We have to get him out."

Lance nodded.

"Um, I hate to be the voice of reason," Hunk interjected, "always, but weren't we watching on TV because there was literally no way to get past the guards?"

Lance flicked a dismissive hand at him. "That was before we were properly motivated. We just gotta think."

He'd failed the Kerberos team once. He had no intentions of doing so again.

"Could we tunnel in?"

Pidge grinned wickedly. "Or maybe we could steal some hazmat suits and sneak in like med techs," he suggested.

"Or," Hunk said, "we dress up like cooks, head back to the dorms, sneak into the commissary—little late-night snack." He rubbed his hands together.

Lance gave him a deadpan look. "No. What we need," he continued, looking back to Pidge, "is a distraction."

The words were barely out of his mouth when a line of explosions went off in the distance, startling all three of them.

Hunk started stammering about the aliens again, but Lance knew it wasn't the Galra. At least, not yet. There wasn't nearly enough purple for them.

He spared a moment to roll his eyes in exasperation. Galra and their precious _purple_. Ugh.

Pidge pointed out the saboteur, flying towards the base on a hovercraft, and Lance felt his mouth drop open as he snagged the binoculars.

"No way! Oh, he is not going to beat us in there!" Lance snapped. He knew that Keith was close to Shiro, but he had no idea what Shiro had been through. The Galra had their ways of changing people, and Lance had a sinking feeling that Shiro's new arm wasn't the only difference.

Also, he was a little ill with Keith. The human boy had beaten him in the flight simulations. Him! An Altean Paladin! It was incredibly offensive.

Okay, so maybe the "playing jealous" wasn't really so much playing as actually being jealous. But that wasn't the point!

He leaped off the ledge.

"Who is it?" Hunk called after him.

"Keith!"

"Who?" Pidge tilted his head.

Hunk's eyes widened, and he quickly ran after Lance. "Are you sure?"

"I'd recognize that mullet anywhere!"

"Who's Keith?!" Pidge yelled, grabbing his stuff and running after them.

Lance didn't answer him, skidding to a stop at the entrance of the quarantine. He carefully scoped it out, but saw no Garrison personnel.

"Come on," he hissed, running down the hall. They quickly reached the room where Shiro was, just in time to see Keith cut him free and pull him up with his human arm over the smaller boy's shoulders. They were barely through the door when Keith's dark eyes landed on them, and he jerked his knife out again, putting himself between them and Shiro.

"Who are you?!" he demanded.

Lance held up both hands. "Dude, chill! We were in the same class at the Garrison! The name's Lance."

Keith lowered the knife a little bit. "Were you an engineer?"

Lance glared. "No, I'm a pilot." He quickly walked forward and pulled Shiro's Galra arm over his shoulders, knowing that he had a much higher chance of surviving an attack from it than any of the others did.

Keith frowned for a second before he nodded. "Oh, I remember you. You're a cargo pilot."

_Just a cargo pilot…_

_"You're not good enough for fighter class, McClain! You're only here because Kogane had a disciplinary issue and flunked out! You're really not even good enough to be a cargo pilot!"_

_"You're only here because the Blue Lion is the most accepting of all! You're not a real Paladin. You're just a serving boy. A placeholder. You're barely even worthy to wash the dishes!"_

Lance gritted his teeth and blamed his next words on the old memories. "Not any more. I'm fighter class now, thanks to you washing out."

He regretted the words as soon as he said them, but it was too late. Keith's eyes hardened, anger giving them a flinty edge. "Well, congratulations," he said sarcastically.

Lance shook his head at himself and just focused on getting Shiro out of there.

He and Keith had almost reached the hovercraft when Hunk warned them of incoming Garrison troops.

"Quiznak," he hissed under his breath as he and Keith _finally_ reached the vehicle.

Hunk and Pidge came sprinting up, and Lance didn't bother asking Keith for permission. He dragged Hunk to the back and gave him a leg up before lifting Pidge and throwing him in Hunk's general direction. He heard Pidge's furious shout at being manhandled and Hunk's squawk of surprise as he tried not to drop the ball of raging gremlin fury.

Lance himself vaulted up onto the middle bit and held out his arms for Shiro. Keith hesitated for just a moment, but something in Lance's face must have convinced him, because the other boy was lifting Shiro's limp form up to him.

Lance pulled him up the rest of the way and carefully transferred his weight to Pidge before dropping lightly down onto the wing and _shifting_ his density. The hovercraft wasn't made to carry so much weight, so he made himself as light as he could without shifting his entire form.

"Whoa, why am I the one holding this guy?" Pidge yelped, but his arms locked around Shiro's chest anyway.

Satisfied that no one was going to come off, Lance twisted and said, "Keith, go!" and the other boy floored it. But the Garrison officials and soldiers had seen them, and the chase was on.

The Garrison vehicles behind them were gaining, and Lance shouted, "Can't this thing go any faster?!"

"We could toss out some non-essential weight," was Keith's scathing reply, and Lance was really tempted to toss _him_ out. He settled for a bad-tempered growl at the back of Keith's head.

Keith turned back slightly. "Big man, lean left!"

Hunk did so, and they all yelled as the little hovercraft made a hairpin turn. Two of the Garrison vehicles crashed, and Lance couldn't help his snicker as Hunk yelled out that "Mr. Harris just wiped out Professor Montgomery! Wait, no, no, he's fine."

"Big man, lean right!" shouted Keith.

Hunk did, and they flew over a gorge, landing in a groove on the opposite canyon wall. Thanks to Keith's skill, they didn't crash, but their closest pursuer wasn't so lucky. That only left one more tail to shake.

Lance looked ahead and immediately realized what Keith was going to do.

"Hunk!" he yelled. "Slide a little higher on the tail and hook your knees under the flaps! Pidge, come here!"

"Why?!" Pidge screamed, clinging to Shiro for dear life.

"Just do it!" he shouted, and Pidge nervously scooted towards him. Lance locked an arm around Pidge and Shiro and _shifted_ his density back to normal.

"You better know what you're doing, mullet!" he yelled, and Keith gave a sharp nod before accelerating—straight off the cliff.

Pidge and Hunk's screams nearly deafened Lance as their controlled fall dragged on and on and _on_ and he was seriously fixing to just jump out and end his own misery when they finally reached the bottom, using the last bit of slope as a ramp to increase their speed. The Garrison vehicle was incapable of following them down, and Lance let out a whoop of victory as they flew over the desert floor.

* * *

 

Lance blinked sleepily, stretching out on the floor of Keith's cabin. He'd slept surprisingly well. For the first time in a long time, no images of a burning Altea or Ari's empty eyes haunted his dreams. Instead, he dreamed of the golden days, when the Paladins' idea of training was find an ice planet and plan a snow war. When Alfor's shouts of rage at the twins' childish pranks would ring out through the Castle hallways, accompanied by Zarkon and Yseult's booming laughter.

There were no tears at the bittersweet images now. It had been long enough that though his heart still bled from the millennia-old wounds, he could smile at the good memories.

Lance pried himself up off the floor, popping his shoulders as he glanced out the window. Shiro and Keith stood on a little hill a few dozen yards from the shack, Keith's hand on the older man's arm.

Lance felt sorrow spear his heart as Shiro turned slightly and his arm, face, and hair came into view. He didn't even want to think about what the Galra had done to him.

He saw them turn to come back inside, and quickly woke Pidge and Hunk. When they came in, Keith marched straight for the sheet on the wall and, with no explanation, ripped it off.

Lance's eyes widened and his breath caught. That was exactly where he'd hidden—

_BLUE!_

**_Yes, my Paladin?_** She inquired innocently.

_Have you or have you not been deliberately letting out bits of your energy to attract Keith's attention?!_

_**Blue grew serious. I have. It is time, my Paladin. I have been trying to warn the boy. I could sense the importance of today, as could you. I only tried to warn him.** _

_Hm_. Lance stared at Keith contemplatively. _Who do you think: Red?_

Blue snickered. **_Absolutely_**.

Lance fought down his smirk and tuned back in to the conversation.

"—fter I was booted from the Garrison," Keith was saying, "I was kinda….lost, and I found myself drawn out to this place."

Lance shook his head, a tiny, fond smile pulling at his mouth. _Blue, I swear. Another stray?_

She laughed gently, then sent him a wave of emotion that he'd always associated with a pointedly raised eyebrow. **_And you were not, my Paladin?_**

He tilted his head in acknowledgement.

"It was like something, some energy, was telling me to search," Keith said.

Shiro turned to look at him. "For what?"

Now Lance was really interested. _You would've let him find you?_

Blue hummed. _**Not without you.**_

Lance sent her warm wave of love and gratitude, and she purred happily.

Keith started describing how he'd found the caves, and the carvings on the walls, and Lance fought the urge to wince.

_/...Ayu sobbed, the hand clutching the stone faltering as he recounted the fall of the Black Paladin…/_

Lance shook his head.

"Some of them—" Keith hesitated. "Some of them have old… _stains_ …on them."

"Stains?" Pidge repeated. "What kind of stains?"

Keith winced. "Well, I'm no expert. But to me, they look like, uh…blood stains."

There was a general intake of breath.

_/…Ayu raised a shaking, bloodstained hand to the carving of his sister's name, resting his forehead against the runes and screaming in pain as he froze his wounds over in a desperate bid for survival…/_

Lance swallowed hard.

"Hey, you okay?" Hunk whispered. "You look kinda pale."

He shot the big guy a grin. "I'm good, I promise."

Hunk nodded and returned his attention to Keith and Shiro.

"—you showed up," Keith said.

Shiro nodded, then looked back at the Garrison Trio. "I should thank you all, for getting me out," he said, stepping forward and holding out his right arm. "Lance, right?"

Lance offered him a small grin and clasped the Galra hand, quietly praying that it wasn't relaying information back to the Galra Empire. Dead though Zarkon may be, his knowledge would have been well preserved, and Honerva—to be honest, he wasn't even sure if Honerva could die, not with what she'd become. At any rate, she would most definitely recognize his quintessence.

And that would be very, very bad.

He heard Pidge introducing both Hunk and himself, and asking about the rest of the crew—Lance frowned. Pidge was really hooked on the missing two crew members. And he was always really touchy about the whole Kerberos mission in general…Either close friends or relatives, then. Lance felt his shoulders sag.

Another friend that he'd let down.

Blue growled in his mind, and Lance reluctantly let the thought go.

Shiro told them what he could, and then mentioned one last thing: "They were looking for something called Voltron," he said, and it was all Lance could do not to cry out, because he could count and there were five people in this group right now and he _wanted his family back, not this group of strangers._

And then Hunk was brilliant, managing to locate the exact ridge he'd hidden Blue beneath.

Lance rolled his eyes in exasperation as they all piled back into the hovercraft with the makeshift "Find the Imaginary Element Machine" that Hunk and Pidge had whipped up in less than two hours.

Ten thousand years he'd kept this Lion hidden, and two teenagers had found her in less than two hours.

With a machine they built from a microwave, a car battery, and a fourteen-year-old broken toaster.

He'd be impressed if he wasn't so darned _irritated_.

They found the cave soon enough, and all the carvings that went with it.

"Wow…" Pidge said, shoving his glasses further up his nose and lightly tracing one of the images. "I think you're right, Keith. This definitely looks like an old bloodstain." The tiny boy shivered, pulling his fingers away.

"Yeah," Keith winced. "What I could read of the writing—which isn't much, but there's about eight different languages here—told a story about betrayal, and death, and destruction. It's…not really a mood lifter."

"Yikes," Hunk muttered.

**_Paladin. Atreyu. It is time._ **

Lance closed his eyes and took a deep breath. _Here we go again, girl._

**_Indeed, my Paladin._ **

He raised a hand _/bloody, shaking fingertips carving warnings into the stone/_ and rested it against the stained Lion's head _/streaks of red marring Blue's beautiful face as he sobs out a goodbye and seals her with as much quintessence as he can spare without dying himself/._

The entire system of carvings lights up, and Lance winces. Yeah, he might've overcharged the carvings—just a little bit.

The others "oohed" and "ahhed", and then the floor gave out underneath them and everyone was screaming. Lance couldn't help it—he started laughing. Their faces were _hilarious_! But he wasn't laughing when he went flying through the air and crashed down into the underground lake because he forgot how far the drop was. Because _ow_. Rocks are very uncomfortable.

He dragged himself upright, groaning and rubbing his back, before his breath caught and tears stung his eyes.

_Blue…_

Her eyes flashed. **_My Paladin._**

He started walking towards her, operating completely on instinct, but Shiro's hand caught his shoulder. "Hold up a second, Lance. We don't know what this is."

"Is this it?" Pidge scooted a little bit closer. "Is this the Voltron?"

Lance almost laughed.

"It-It must be," Shiro answered, wide eyes fixed on the Lion.

"This is what's been causing all of this crazy energy out here," Keith said, unable to look away.

 _Look at you_ , Lance teased, _playing so hard to get._

Blue purred, amused.

Keith jogged forwards, calling back, "It looks like there's a force field around it."

Lance actually had to bite his tongue to keep from shouting _It's a particle barrier, you uneducated mullet head, not a force field!_

But that was obviously a very big no-no.

"I wonder how we get through this?" Keith asked no one in particular.

_/"The Blue Lion has never lowered her particle barrier." The powerful Galra shrugged. "We don't really know why."_

_The Balmeran laughed. "Well, what have we got to lose? Why don't we let this one try and see. His heart holds more light than a crystal."_

_The Altean rolled his eyes. "He can try," he said, "but nothing has ever convinced Blue to open up."_

_The serving boy bit his lip. "Maybe you just have to knock," he said shyly./_

Lance smiled, soft and bittersweet. "Maybe you just have to knock," he said, echoing his own words from ages past. He reached out and tapped lightly on the barrier.

Blue's eyes gleamed, and just like before, the barrier disintegrated in a burst of blue quintessence. The carvings beneath her glowed, and she easily flowed into all of their heads like water, showing Voltron in all its glory.

The vision faded, and Lance stared up at her in awe. He'd forgotten what Voltron looked like. It had been so long…..

Hunk started ranting about Voltron being a robot, and Pidge started speculating on where the other Lions were.

 _Green is on Irathu, Yellow is on Fialyn, Black was in the Castle, and Red_ —

Lance cut himself off. He did his best not to think about Red. Or his Paladin.

"This is what they're looking for," Shiro murmured, and Keith replied with a low "Incredible."

Then Blue stood, lowering her mighty head and opening her mouth, and Lance all but ran to her cockpit. He sank down into his chair, and immediately Blue filled his head, fully awake at last.

**_My Paladin. My Cub. You are Home._ **

Lance closed his eyes as tears threatened yet again.

_I'm back, Blue. And if I have anything to say about it, I am never leaving again!_

She roared her agreement out loud, and Lance bit back his laughter at the startled and terrified sounds the others let out as they crowded around his chair.

"Okay, guys, I feel the need to point out that we are in some giant futuristic alien cat head right now," Hunk said, sounding remarkably calm.

Lance rolled his eyes and ignored them as he powered up all of Blue's systems. He did tell them that he could hear her in his head, which seemed to really freak them out.

"Okay," he said, after the viewport came up and Blue was at full power. "Got it." He thrust both controls forward, and Blue _roared_ as she smashed her way out of the earth and back into the sky.

All of the others were screaming and grabbing onto whatever they could reach, but Lance didn't care because he and Blue were _together_ again, _flying_ again. He'd never thought he'd get to do this again, but here they were…

 ** _Focus, Cub,_** she reminded him, gentle scolding in her words. But she was unable to hide the absolute joy that filled her up from the inside out.

He sent back a wave of affirmation and tuned back into the others just in time to hear Keith's "You are the worst pilot ever!"

Blue growled, offended on his behalf, and proceeded to make the flight as bumpy as she possibly could.

"Isn't this awesome?!" Lance crowed.

"Make it stop," Hunk begged, teary-eyed. "Make it stop."

"I'm not making it do anything!" Lance said. "It's like it's on autopilot!" Which was true to a point, but still… _Blue, stop torturing Hunk just because Keith was a jerk._

She harrumphed at that, but conceded with remarkably good grace, smoothing out the flight as she took off, heading for the atmosphere.

"Where are you going?!" Keith yelled, and Lance turned slightly to give him a "you idiot" look.

"I just said it's on autopilot," he said, but Blue growled in his mind, quickly pulling his focus back to more important matters. "It says there's an alien ship approaching earth," he told them, "and that we need to stop it."

 ** _I am not an it!_** Blue said indignantly, showing him the approximated arrival point of the Galra cruiser.

I know that, girl, he said apologetically, running a few strategies by her that would hopefully get them past the ship and away from Earth before the Galra could attack. _But the others don't yet, and I need them to trust me, not be freaking out about how I know things like that right now._

 _ **Fine**_ , she grumbled. _**The third scenario has the highest possibility of succeeding. But you had better make it up to me later.**_

 _I promise,_ Lance grinned.

"What did it say, exactly?!" Pidge half-shouted, looking pretty freaked out already.

"It's not really using words," Lance said. "More like feeding ideas into my head."

"Well, if this is what they're looking for," Hunk said nervously, "maybe we should just give it to them. I mean, maybe they'll go away—"

"No!" Lance shouted before he could stop himself. But before the others could demand an explanation, Blue blasted another image into their heads. She didn't let Lance see it, which told him all he needed to know about what she'd shown them: the last world that had angered the Galra.

Hunk's face went white, Pidge attached himself to Lance's arm, and Keith and Shiro turned to each other with matching expressions of horror.

"Never mind," Hunk said in a very small voice.

They had already passed through the atmosphere when the battle cruiser dropped out of hyperspace right in front of them. Lance yelped and threw his Lion into a barrel roll, just barely missing the ship.

His passengers all made various sounds of displeasure, and he shot a quick "Sorry!" over his shoulder.

Shiro stared out of the screen with terrified horror in his silver eyes. "They found me," he whispered, but Lance shook his head quietly.

They had found the one they were looking for, alright. But it wasn't Shiro.

After ten thousand years of running and hiding, the Galra Empire had finally hunted down Atreyu Talyn, the Lost Paladin.

And this time, he had nowhere to run.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not dead!! I'm so sorry it's been so long. College has been a serious pain. So here's chapter two! I hope you enjoyed it. Leave me a review and tell me what you thought!


	3. I Have Walked A Thousand Miles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Weapons and fighters and war are things he once knew well, and he hates how much steadier it makes his hands on the controls.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been so long! I'm so sorry, guys! My summer has been psycho, and to be totally honest with you I completely forgot about this story. But I'm back! And I resolved the cliffhanger, so you're welcome. Um SPOILERS FOR EPISODE ONE!! So don't read if you haven't watched. Enjoy!

_I Have Walked a Thousand Miles_

* * *

... _They had found the one they were looking for, alright. But it wasn't Shiro._

_After ten thousand years of running and hiding, the Galra Empire had finally hunted down Atreyu Talyn, the Lost Paladin._

_And this time, he had nowhere to run..._

* * *

Lance didn't have long to stew in his panic, as the Galra ship opened fire on them.

"We've got to get Shiro and the Lion out of here!" Pidge yelled.

"Hang on!" Lance threw the controls forward, and Blue swerved into a dangerous dance, weaving between the lasers. It took all of his skill to pilot her through without truly joining their minds, but he couldn't risk that just yet.

 _ **We need to attack, Ayu** ,_ Blue told him.

 _Got it._ "Okay guys, I think I know what to do!"

"Be careful, man!" Pidge yelled. "This isn't the simulator!"

"Well that's good!" he said cheerfully. "I always wreck the simulator!"

There were terrified groans from his passengers, and Pidge shrieked, "That's not funny!"

Blue laughed.

They quickly flew a good distance away, and Lance shouted  _Fire!_

Blue opened her mouth and her powerful blue beam tore into the Galra cruiser, blasting the side of the ship. A long line of explosions went off, and Pidge cheered.

Lance grinned for a moment before focusing again, bringing Blue in close, dodging the lasers with a graceful flip that had her landing claws-first onto the other side of the cruiser.

_Rip it up, beautiful._

**_With pleasure!_** She plunged her claws into the metal and tore off two huge strips all the way down the hull, setting off even more explosions.

"Well done, Lance!" Shiro said, and Lance felt something warm curl up in his chest.

_Definitely Black._

Blue hummed her agreement.

"Okay, I think it's time to get these guys away from our planet," he said, spinning Blue and taking off. He really hoped they had enough power to wormhole, because if they didn't, this was going to be a real short trip.

The ship immediately turned and pursued them.

"Okay, that's weird," Lance muttered, eyeing Blue's scanners. "They're not trying to shoot us, they're just chasing us."

Hunk panicked, but Lance tuned it out.

 _They think it's just you,_  he realized.  _Oh, duh! I'm such an idiot. They don't know that I'm still alive. My wounds were supposed to be fatal. And they have no way of knowing that you kept me alive with your quintessence. They want to capture you so that the Empire can force a new Paladin on you._

Blue snarled.  _ **Never**._

Lance almost smiled, then quickly repressed it as they passed Kerberos.

He heard Pidge commenting on how fast they'd gotten out here, and Blue preened.

 _We're far enough from Earth to open a wormhole now,_ she told him.

He took a deep breath.  _Okay, here goes nothing…_

He reached out to Blue, joining his quintessence with hers, focusing hard. And sure enough, there was an Altean wormhole.

"What is that?!" Hunk shouted.

"I don't know," Lance lied, "but the Lion wants us to go through it."

"Wh-where does it go?" Pidge asked.

A sudden shiver of pure  _joy_  ran through Blue, and Lance frowned.  _Blue? Where_ _ **are**_ _we going?_

**_You will see._ **

He turned back to the others. "The Lion's not telling. Shiro, you're the senior officer here. What do we do?"

Shiro didn't have to think for very long. "The Lion knows more about what's going on than any of us," he said firmly. "I say we trust it, but we're a team now. We decide together."

One by one, the others nodded, and Lance faced the wormhole again.

"Iverson is going to be  _so_ mad when none of us show up for class tomorrow," he said as Blue picked up the pace.

They flew into the wormhole, and Lance quickly snapped their entry point shut.

_Blue, seriously, where are we going? I need to put in an exit point._

_**Trust me** ,_ she said.

He rolled his eyes, then had to close them and lean his head back. He'd forgotten just how trippy wormholes could be.

Finally, they shot through on the other side, soaring towards a blue-and-green planet that Lance didn't recognize.

"Woah," he said. "That was—"

Hunk spun to the side and vomited. "So sorry," he gasped out before turning back and heaving again.

Pidge pushed his glasses up his nose. "I'm just surprised it took this long."

"These constellations are all strange," Shiro said. "I don't know any of them. We must be a long, long way from Earth."

Lance scanned the stars himself, and a faint memory pulled at his mind.  _Arus?_

Blue hummed in affirmation, and Lance raised an eyebrow.  _Care to tell me why?_

_**No**._

He huffed in fond irritation. "The Lion definitely wants to go to this planet," he told the others as Blue activated her thrusters and took off at full speed towards Arus. She dropped through the atmosphere and shot across the surface of the planet, probably a little faster than was necessarily safe.

_Blue! Slow down!_

**_We're almost there, Paladin! Almost home!_ **

Lance's eyes widened, and his breathing hitched.  _Home? What do you mean,_ _ **home?**_ _Home_ _ **blew**_ _ **up**_ _almost ten thousand deca-phoebes ago!_

**_Trust me._ **

He swallowed, hands beginning to shake. "Guys, personal space!" he snapped, suddenly feeling like the cockpit was too small.

"Sorry," Hunk said, "but is it just me or is anyone else having second thoughts about flying through a mysterious wormhole? Why are we even listening to a giant, blue, robot Lion anyway?!"

"It saved us from that alien warship, didn't it?" Lance retorted.

"I don't know if you've noticed," Keith said, straightening up, "but we're  _in_ an alien warship."

Lance opened his mouth to answer, but cut himself off, shooting the boy a sour look.

"Alright, knock it off!" Shiro said firmly, giving both of them a look that made Lance feel like he and Alfor had just been caught bickering by Zarkon again. "No one's happy to be in this situation, but we're here now. If we want to make it through this mess, we have got to work together. We can't do that if we're all taking shots at each other."

_Oh, yeah. Totally Black. She's gonna love him._

Blue purred, amused, but still didn't tell him where they were headed.

"Okay, so what do we do?" Pidge asked.

"Find out where we're headed," Shiro said. "Lance?"

"I don't know," he answered, staring down at his console. "The Lion's not talking to me anymore."  _Which is really annoying,_ _ **Blue.**_

She just purred louder.

"Okay," Shiro frowned. "I guess we'll just wait and see where we end up."

Suddenly, Blue increased her speed, sending them all stumbling backwards.

"What the—" Lance muttered, rubbing the back of his head. He looked up, opened his mouth—and froze.

Because there, shining in the Arusian sunlight, was the Castle of Lions.

Tears stung his eyes, and his mouth was hanging open, but he didn't care.

 _ **Home**!_Blue cried out, eyes flashing, and the crystal spires lit up, a brilliant blue that could be seen for miles.

 _Home,_  Lance whispered in awe and disbelief and fragile, fragile hope began to bloom in his heart.

"Wow," murmured the others, eyes wide.

They soared past the spires, landing in the courtyard.

"Keep your guard up," Shiro cautioned, eyes sweeping back and forth.

"Is something wrong?" Pidge asked, looking up at him.

"My crew was captured by aliens once," he said grimly. "and I have no intention of letting it happen again."

Blue lowered her head and let down the ramp, and Lance's heart was in his mouth as he scrambled out of his chair.

They grouped together at the foot of the ramp, and Blue pulled her head back up.

"Oh no!" Hunk yelled. "I knew it was going to eat us!"

Lance stared up at the Castle with desperate hope as Blue roared. The doors lit up, and he almost sobbed as they slid open. They walked inside, and Lance's heart hurt at how dark and quiet it was. This Castle was supposed to be full of light and laughter and  _life._

"Hello!" Hunk shouted, and the Paladin actually flinched back from the hollow echo that was the only answer.

Pidge looked up and let out a surprised sound. "This is beautiful and all, but from the size of the Lion, I kind of expected these stairs to be….bigger."

Abruptly, a blue light beamed down on them, and they all gasped in surprise. Lance relaxed when he realized it was just the identity scan.

"Hold for identity scan," said a pleasant female voice.

The blue light whizzed up their bodies, and Shiro looked up as he shouted back, "Why are we here? Where exactly  _is_ here? What do you want with us?"

There was no answer, but light fixtures began to flare up, illuminating the hallway that lead to the control room.

"I guess we go that way," Pidge said with a shrug. He started walking, and the others followed him.

Lance could barely believe his eyes. The Castle. Home. It was still here. It was a good thing no one tried to talk to him, because he didn't think he could speak right now.

They walked for a long time, and Lance was admittedly confused when they passed the control room and kept going. But then the doors to the  _cryopod chamber_ opened, and his breathing picked up. Could it…could it be? Had someone else survived? Maybe—just maybe—he wasn't the last of his race.

"Where are we?" Shiro wondered, and Pidge stopped next to the console.

"It's….some kind of control room," he answered. The console lit up, and Pidge spun around with a gasp.

Lance took a half step back, heart pounding wildly in his chest as not one but  _two_ pods rose up from the floor.

The first pod started to open, and as soon as he saw blue and white skirts, he knew who it was. Skin as tan as his own. Wavy silver hair flowing to her waist. Pale rose facial markings.

_Allura._

_Sister._

Her eyes—mingled pink and sky blue—snapped open with a gasp, and she reached one arm out. "Father!" she cried, before collapsing.

Lance was frozen.

_Allura._

_Allura is alive._

_Allura is alive and here and the Castle is still standing._

Shiro, being the closest to the pod, sprang forward and caught her before she could hit the ground. Lance still couldn't move.

Allura groaned softly, blinking and looking around.

"Hey, are you alright?" Shiro asked her.

She looked up at him. "Who are you?" she asked, voice hoarse. "Where am I?"

"My name is Shiro," the man answered, still supporting her. "And I honestly don't know where we are."

She stared at him for a moment longer, and Lance could see the moment her mind caught up with what she was seeing. "Your ears," she said, eyes widening.

Shiro exchanged baffled looks with the others while Lance was torn between laughing or sobbing.

"Uh, what about them?" Shiro turned back to the Princess.

She pulled back just a little bit. "They're hideous. What's wrong with them?"

Shiro's eyes widened. "Hey! There's nothing wrong with them! They work just fine!"

That was when Allura's face hardened, and she had Shiro pinned on the ground in less than two ticks. "Who are you?!" she demanded. "Where is King Alfor?! And what are you doing in my Castle?!"

"We don't know!" Shiro shouted as Keith made to draw his knife and Pidge started forward with a panicked look on his face. "A giant blue Lion brought us here, and that's all we know!"

"How do you have the Blue Lion?!" Allura demanded, releasing Shiro. "What happened to her Paladin?!"

She whipped around to look at the rest of them, and froze when she saw Lance.

He stared at her, a single tear sliding down his face.

"Ayu?" she whispered, hope and confusion in her eyes.

He sobbed out a laugh and nodded, and she threw herself into his arms.

"Ayu!"

"Allura," he choked out, trembling from head to foot. His legs gave out, and she sank to the floor with him, never loosening her hold on him. " _Allura."_

"I'm here," she said, fingers tightening in his hair. "I'm here, Ayu. I have you."

He buried his face in her shoulder and  _sobbed._

He distantly heard Keith shout, "What is going on?!" and Hunk's really confused, "Lance, you  _know_  her?" and Pidge's muttering of "I had today going differently in my head."

But all he cared about was the beat of Allura's heart, strong and steady beneath his ear. "I am here, Brother," she said, pressing their foreheads together. "I am here." She clasped his face gently in her hands. "I am here, Atreyu."

He wrapped his fingers around her wrists and nodded, tears still running down his face. "Ancients above, I've missed you, Lura," he gasped out.

She laughed, her own tears glittering in the blue light. "I would say that I've missed you as well, but that would be bit misleading."

Lance pulled back, putting one hand over his heart with a wounded air. "Allura! You wound me!"

Her laughter turned into a sob halfway through, and this time he held her, and she hid her face against his chest.

From this angle, he could see the gobsmacked expressions of his friends, and he rested his chin on Allura's head and looked away.

"What  _happened,_ Ayu?" she asked him quietly, and he closed his eyes.

"Of all the questions to ask, you had to pick  _that_ one," he murmured back, and she sat up.

"That bad?"

He just looked at her and pointedly gestured to the cryo pods and his human appearance. She winced. "Point taken."

"What is happening here?!" Keith shouted, knife in his hand. "How do you know each other?!"

"Lance?" Hunk quivered, and he sounded so afraid, so sad, that Lance felt guilt tear at his heart.

"What is going on, Lance?!" Pidge said, trying to sound angry, but Lance could see tears in his eyes.

"Lance, we need answers," Shiro said sharply, putting himself between the Alteans and the humans. That hurt more than anything, that Shiro thought they needed to be protected from him. "And we need them now."

Allura's eyes blazed. "How dare you—" she started, but Lance caught her wrist with a gentle smile and shook his head.

" _They don't know, Lura,_ " he said, dropping into Altean with relief. Oh, it felt  _good_ to speak in his native tongue again.

She huffed.  _"It's still rude."_

" _Yes, but not unjustified. This is the first time most of them have even seen beings from another planet,_ " he reminded her.

She rolled her eyes. "Fine."

He climbed to his feet, and couldn't quite hide the pain in his eyes when they pulled away from him. "If I wanted to hurt you or kill you, I would have left you to the Galra," he said quietly. "I didn't have to save you."

Shiro flinched, and Lance immediately regretted his word choice. "Sorry," he murmured.

"Wait, wait, wait." Pidge shoved his glasses up his nose. "Are you telling us that you're not actually  _human?!_ "

Lance sighed and  _shifted,_ regaining his proper form for the first time in—he didn't want to think about how long it'd been. His ears lengthened and tapered to fine points. His hair turned silver and grew just a bit, and he could feel his facial markings growing, starting at the corners of his eyes, going to the middle of his cheekbones and then running all the way down his face. They were a forest green in color, the same color as Ari's eyes, and hers had been in ocean blue. It had amused the other Paladins to no end that Blue's facial markings were green and Green's were blue.

He saw his friends' eyes widen and their mouths drop, and swallowed hard. Allura rose to her feet and took his hand. "There you are, Brother," she murmured, pride gleaming in her eyes.

He groaned softly, flexing his shoulders. Then he reached up and rubbed his ears. "By the Ancients, I've missed these things!" he said with a grin.

Allura laughed and ran her other hand through his hair. She frowned. "It's so short."

He laughed softly. "Yeah. School regulations."

"Ah." She nodded.

"Why were you at the Garrison in the first place?" Shiro asked, still tense. "You obviously know more about space than everyone else there."

Lance sighed, running his own hands through his hair, seeing the white strands out of the corner of his eyes. "I needed to make sure they didn't get me caught," he said wearily. "I was a Paladin of Voltron, the last one, as far as anyone was concerned. I had to stay hidden. The universe literally depended on it."

Keith snorted. "Got a pretty high opinion of yourself, don't you?"

Lance's eyes flashed. "You  _saw_ that Galra ship!" he snapped. "That was a single battle cruiser. A fleet is made up of three of those, plus all of their fighters, and a fleet is literally the smallest grouping that the Galra military has! Had the Empire learned I was on Earth, they wouldn't have bothered to scope it out, and they wouldn't have sent in one fleet. They would have sent in their entire armada and  _they would have just blown up the entire planet."_

Keith's mouth dropped open, and the others turned pale.

Lance narrowed his eyes at the boy. "The element the Lions are made out of is tough enough to withstand such explosions. I would have been incinerated, or at the very least badly injured. Blue would have been damaged just enough that she couldn't fight back, and boom. The Galra have a Lion of Voltron. And using the data stored in Blue, they could've found all the other Lions as well. And before you know it, they have Voltron." He gave them a bitter smile. "The end."

Pidge swallowed hard, pushing his glasses up again. "So-so you had to stay hidden?"

He sagged, all the anger flowing out of him. "Yeah. Nothing and no one could know where I was. I had to stay completely below the radar."

Allura's eyes watered, and she rested a hand on the side of his face. "You've been alone this whole time," she whispered. He closed his eyes and leaned into her hand, not denying her words.

"So, how long have you been hiding on Earth, exactly?" Keith demanded, crossing his arms.

Lance's mouth went dry as Allura looked up at him.

"A long time," he said hoarsely. "A very, very long time."

Allura's brow furrowed in concern. "How long?" she asked, just a bit of panic beginning to work its way into her voice. "And where are we? I need to know." She turned and started over to the console.

Lance's eyes widened, and he quickly caught Allura's wrists. "You're on Arus," he told her. "You're on Arus, and before you do anything else, we need to open the other pod."

Her eyes focused on his, and he looked away. "Fine," she said, tight-lipped. "But after that, you  _will_ tell me what's going on, why we're the only ones in the Castle right now, and why you won't meet my eyes for longer than five ticks."

He cringed. "I will," he promised.

Allura tapped a few things on the console, and the second pod opened.

Lance's eyes widened as a blue uniform came into view, with aqua facial markings and vivid orange hair. Deep blue eyes opened sleepily, only to widen drastically when they landed on Pidge.

"Ah!" he shouted. "Enemy combatants!" he leaped straight out of his pod, and Pidge squeaked, practically teleporting over to and up Shiro, clinging to his shoulders.

The Altean hit the ground and immediately started to fall.

Lance jumped forward with a tearful laugh. "You might wanna give it a minute, Coran. You've got a pretty bad case of the sleep-chamber knees."

Coran's eyes widened, and he grabbed the boy's shoulders. "Atreyu?" he breathed, and Lance nodded, smile widening even as more tears escaped his eyes. "Atreyu!" Coran grabbed him in a rib-crushing hug and spun him around until, still a bit uncoordinated from his hibernation, he tripped, crashing into Allura and sending all three Alteans to the ground.

Lance hadn't laughed that hard since Altea fell.

"By the Ancients, lad," Coran said as they clambered back to their feet. "How did you survive?!"

Lance's smile faltered. "I—" he started, but Allura cut him off.

"Coran," she said, "According to Ayu, we're on Arus, but I still need to know how long we've been asleep. Could you run a systems check, to see if the Castle has been damaged?"

"Sure thing, Princess!" he replied cheerfully, to which there was a general explosion from the humans.

"Princess?!"

Lance's eyes widened. "Right. Sorry. Guys, may I present Princess Allura of Planet Altea. This is Coran, the Royal Advisor and general nutjob—"

"Hey!"

"—Sorry, Coran," he chuckled.

"And you?" Keith said shortly.

Lance blinked. "What?"

"Who are you?" Shiro clarified.

"Oh." Lance cleared his throat. "My name—"he took a deep breath. "My name is Atreyu Talyn, and I am the Blue Paladin of Voltron."

There was a beat of silence, and Lance found himself standing straighter, tension draining out of him, as he truly owned himself for the first time in ten thousand years.

Shiro recovered first. "So you knew how to do all those things with the Lion—"

"Because I've done them before," Lance finished. "Yeah. But you can still call me Lance."

Hunk stared at him for a moment longer before he shrugged. "Okay," he said.

They all gaped at him.

"What?" Hunk said, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "He's still Lance, just with white hair and weird stuff on his face."

Lance sprinted across the room and all but tackled Hunk. "Thanks, buddy," he choked out, trying to hold on to his emotions.

Hunk laughed, rubbing his back. "No problem, dude."

Allura smiled and reached for the console. "Well then. I'll just—"

But Lance stopped her again. "Allura….I don't think you want to do that."

Allura frowned. "You're beginning to frighten me a bit, Ayu."

He flinched minutely. "Sorry. And do me a favor: just call me Lance."

She tilted her head in a wordless question, and he gestured to the humans. "They've got enough to deal with," he said with a grin. "Let's not make their primitive little brains work harder than they have to."

"Oh, har har," Pidge griped. "Hunk, I'm with you. This is  _definitely_ the same troll that's been driving me up the wall since I met him."

Lance smiled at him, soft and grateful, and Pidge marched over, jumped straight up and grabbed Lance's ear, dragging him down to his level. "Don't go getting any ideas," he said, and Lance laughed, grabbing him in a hug.

"Thanks, you little gremlin," he said warmly.

"Yeah, yeah, lemme go," Pidge grumbled, trying and failing to hide a matching smile.

Allura gave him a look. "Ay—Lance," she said. "We got Coran. Now I need answers." She stepped up to the console, and when he didn't stop her, she started typing. Her fingers flew across the screens, and Lance swallowed hard, knowing exactly what she would find.

He bit his lip and turned away at Allura's horrified gasp. "No," she said. "No, this can't be right." She turned to look at him. "This says we've been asleep for  _ten thousand deca-phoebes!"_

Coran made a strangled noise, and Lance bowed his head.

"But—" Allura was desperate. "This can't be right. It  _can't_ be. It says—" her voice faltered. "Ayu, this says that all of the Paladins are  _dead_!"

He clenched his fists. "That's because most of us are," he managed.

"No," she shook her head. "No! My father—Ayu, what happened to my father?!"

"I don't know!" he shouted, finally losing control. "I don't know! The last thing I saw was Altea burning and Zarkon dragging Red's  _completely deactivated form_ out of the  _wreckage of our planet!"_

Dead silence fell, and Lance realized too late what he had said.

"Altea….burning?" Coran repeated, voice barely above a whisper.

Lance turned to him. The adviser's face was white, and his hands were holding onto his knees tight enough to leave bruises.

"I—" he faltered.

"What do you mean, "burning"?" Coran demanded. "Altea can't be gone! It's an entire planet!"

"We destroyed Daibazaal easily enough," Lance shot back, but there was no fire in his words. "Zarkon got the Druids, and—"

"My wife was down there," Coran said, tears pooling in his eyes. "And  _my son_. Are you absolutely certain that it's gone?"

Lance's throat closed, and he nodded. "I'm sure," he rasped. "There were no survivors."

"Zarkon had the Red Lion," Allura repeated. She stared at him. "You  _watched_  Zarkon capture the Red Lion."

The insinuation was clear in her words, and Lance just nodded. It was true. He had sat there and done nothing as Zarkon captured Alfor.

Blue did not agree.

 _ **You did no such thing,**_ she snarled in his head.  ** _The girl needs to watch her tongue._**

 _She's in shock,_  he reprimanded.  _Give her a minute._

"I tried, Allura," he said, desperate for her to understand. "I tried, I swear to you I tried. But I had Blue and Green, and I had to get them hidden. There's a reason the Castle thinks I'm dead—Zarkon tried very, very hard to make sure that I was. But I swear to you, sister, that I tried."

Her eyes pooled with tears, but she shook her head, backing away from him, pain still burning in her eyes.

"I'm really sorry to interrupt," Shiro said, actually sounding regretful, "but….what's a deca-phoebe?"

"It's roughly the equivalent of one Earth year," Lance answered, voice cracking.

Shiro sucked in a sharp breath, but before he could speak again, Pidge broke in.

"You're over  _ten thousand years old?!"_  he squawked, glasses sliding down his nose.

Lance gave him a tiny grin. "Yeah," he said. "Blue shared her quintessence—that is, her life energy—with me. She literately can't run out of it, so it wasn't really a problem to keep me around."

"Wow," Pidge muttered.

But Shiro had latched onto something else. "You've been hiding on a strange planet, alone, for over ten thousand years?"

Lance looked at him and nodded silently.

"But you...You had your Lion, right?" Keith asked.

Lance shook his head. "I couldn't get to her without breaking the runes that hid her quintessence," he responded.

"I really hate to ask this," Pidge said, picking at his fingernails. "But…Did you have a family, Lance?" He looked up, wide honey eyes finding blue. "You were always talking about your family at the Garrison."

Allura's eyes widened, and Coran sucked in a sharp breath.

Lance just nodded. "I did," he whispered. "My mom and dad and five siblings: two brothers and three sisters."

Keith winced, and Hunk's eyes teared up.

"Did—" Shiro hesitated. "Did any of them—"

"Survive? No." Lance closed his eyes. "No one on Altea survived. That blast was…It was massive. It destroyed  _everything._ "

Allura's hands were over her mouth. "I didn't even think," she whispered. "You had to  _watch_ that, didn't you?"

He nodded.

Allura sobbed, staggering forward and pressing their foreheads together. "I'm sorry," she cried. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, Ayu, I didn't mean it. I know you wouldn't-I'm sorry..."

He sagged against her with a ragged sigh of relief, hugging her tight, unable to speak.

Coran wrapped them both in his arms for just a moment. "We're all that's left," he said. "It's us three."

They clung to each other for a timeless moment, and then Allura's ear twitched suddenly. "Or maybe us seven!" she cried, racing over to her pod and lifting up the tiny mice that had been hiding in the bottom.

Lance laughed in delight as he recognized them. "No way!" he held out his hands, and Plachu scurried into them, crossing his tiny arms and glaring.

Allura laughed as the other three climbed up to her shoulders and swung on strands of her hair. "Not so alone after all," she said with a smile, turning to the other Alteans. They smiled back at her, and for the first time in a  _long_ time, Lance felt like he had a home again.

* * *

  **I am so sorry this is so late!! Hopefully the reunion and happy ending made up for it.**

**Next up: The Lions of Voltron come home.**

**Till next time!**

**Author's Note:**

> Okay! There we go. This is officially my first piece on Archive Of Our Own, so be nice!! I hope you all enjoyed!! Loved it, hated it, let me know!! There are already eight chapters of this up on FF, so I'll try to update them all here as soon as I can.


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